This photo taken on Jan. 1, 2023 shows the construction site of a China-funded bridge in Kratie province, Cambodia. Cambodia on Monday broke ground for the construction of a bridge across the Mekong River here in the country's northeastern part, with funds from China. (Photo by Van Pov/Xinhua)

As the first new sub-regional cooperation mechanism, the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) has continued to develop at a high level during the past seven years since its launch, becoming a "golden model" of regional cooperation, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

The Lancang-Mekong area is one of the regions with the greatest development potential in Asia. Lancang and Mekong differ in name, but refer to the same river — an important water system running across China and Southeast Asia. It is called Lancang River in China, while in its downstream after flowing out of Yunnan Province, it is called the Mekong River, running across Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, measuring 4,880 kilometers in length and covering an area of 795,000 square kilometers.

Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson from the ministry, said that at the 7th LMC Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in Myanmar in July last year, the six countries agreed to jointly build a demonstration zone for high-quality construction of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, an early zone for the Global Development Initiative (GDI) and an experimental zone for Global Security Initiative (GSI), in order to build a closer community with a shared future for the countries along the river.

With the joint efforts of all parties, LMC has reaped fruitful results over the past year. All five countries along the Mekong River have joined the Group of Friends of the GDI, and responded positively to the GSI, actively participating in the cooperation under the framework of the two initiatives, Wang said.

According to the spokesperson, high-quality construction of the BRI continues to progress. With the opening of the China-Laos Railway over the past year, the construction of the China-Thailand Railway is progressing steadily.

In 2022, China's trade volume with the five southeastern Asian countries reached $416.7 billion, up 5 percent year-on-year, while China's total agricultural imports from the five countries increased by 22 percent. 

Wang cited a number of projects under the LMC. For instance, the second Lancang-Mekong Fruit Festival brought more durian, longan, coconut and other agricultural products from the five countries to Chinese market; an agricultural cooperation plan has already trained 1,300 people in the use of agricultural technology in countries along Mekong River. 

Wang noted that after China optimized the pandemic management, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao and Vietnam became the pilot countries for China to resume outbound group tours, and the number of people travelling between China and those countries increased rapidly. In January this year, nearly 100,000 Chinese tourists visited Thailand, and 24,000 to Cambodia. Laos and Vietnam are expected to receive nearly 400,000 and four million Chinese tourists for the whole year respectively.

At present, the world is entering a new period of volatility, with sluggish global economic recovery. China is solidly promoting Chinese-style modernization, which will bring new benefits to the development of the countries along Mekong River and add more momentum to the LMC cooperation, injecting more "fresh water" to the region to achieve peace and development, Wang said.

Global Times